Rupee down 9 paise against dollar

The rupee closed at 45.04/05.

Forex dealers said that spiralling global crude oil prices forced oil companies to buy dollar even at the current level, which weighed on the rupee.

While the Brent North sea crude finished the day at around USD 115 per barrel, New York`s white sweet crude touched USD 101 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex continued its north-bound journey for the fourth straight session and closed up by 43.26 points or 0.23 per cent today.

Alpari Forex (India) CEO Pramit Brahmbhatt said that equity markets had a volatile session during the day and eventually managed to close in green and expected the rupee to trade in the range of 44.80?45.30 tomorrow.

Events in the Middle East and dollars performance against major currencies will decide further direction of the rupee and further increase in crude oil prices will put strong pressure on the rupee as it will result in more dollar demand by oil importing companies in India, he added.

At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unite opened slightly lower at 44.97/98 a dollar from previous close of 44.95/96.

It later moved in a narrow range of 44.94 and 45.10 before concluding the day at 45.04/05.

The rupee premium for the forward dollar continued to rule weak on sustain receivings by exporters. The benchmark 6-month forward dollar premium payable in August finished down at 136-138 paise from last close of 139-1/2-141-1/2 paise.

Far-forward contracts maturing in February also settled lower at 265-267 paise from 268-1/2-270-1/2 paise previously.

The Reserve Bank of India has fixed the reference rate for the dollar at Rs 44.96 and the euro at Rs 62.33.

The rupee fell back to Rs 73.26/28 against the pound sterling from Tuesday`s close of Rs 73.13/15 and also turned negative to end at Rs 62.49/51 per euro from Rs 62.14/16 previously.

It too reacted downwards against the yen to end at Rs 55.09/11 paise per 100 yen from its last close of Rs 54.74/76.